Lighting Incentive Program

If you are interested in signing up for this program
please call 573-874-7325 or e-mail
Columbia Water & Light - wlmail@GoColumbiaMo.com.

Join Columbia Water & Light’s efforts to reduce our electric costs by being paid to increase your lighting efficiency! By taking advantage of our Lighting Incentive program you can achieve significant reductions to your energy usage and receive a rebate to help cover lighting upgrades. Lighting upgrades can also improve the quality of your lighting. This makes your product look more appealing and improves the working environment for your employees.

Commercial lighting can represents 10% to 25% of your total energy use so upgrades can make a real difference on your electric costs. Commercial customers can receive $300 for each kilowatt of electricity a new lighting system saves! Columbia Water & Light also offers a low interest loan program to help you finance the upgrade.

Program Parameters

The Lighting Incentive program is offered to all Columbia Water & Light commercial and industrial electric customers.

A business’s new lighting system has to be at least a one kilowatt reduction from the old lighting system to be eligible for a rebate.

The amount of the rebate is $300 per kilowatt of reduction with the new lighting system or one half the invoiced cost of the project, whichever is less.

The maximum amount of a lighting rebate for a single project or combined projects at one location is $22,500 or a 75 kilowatt reduction, whichever is lower. A customer with a larger lighting project can request a rebate through the Columbia Water & Light Director.

Only payments made to outside vendors for equipment, supplies and labor will be counted as eligible costs. Labor costs for work performed by the customer or the staff of the customer are not eligible for a rebate.

Only indoor lighting projects are eligible for a rebate.

Lighting retrofits
must be hardwired projects except for approved LED, cold cathode, or GU-24 base
lamps. When approved, a rebate awarded for the replacement of lamps will be
based only on a one-to-one replacement of existing lamps. Any wattage reduction
from the reduction in the number of lamps (such as the removal of track heads),
does not factor into rebate award calculations.

Columbia Water & Light recommends that customers maintain documentation showing proper disposal of all lamps, ballast and other material that meets the Missouri “Universal Waste Rule” and the “Toxic Substance Control Act” as regulated by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Additional information can be found on the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ Hazardous Waste Program web site.

The Process

A commercial electric customer needs to perform a lighting assessment and fill out Columbia Water & Light’s Lighting Analysis Sheet (page 2). You can download the anlysis sheet in an Excel file so the calculations are automatically completed. A business’ staff member, a lighting vendor or a contractor can help the business with ideas for lighting load reductions and suggest replacement products.

Once the Lighting Analysis Sheet is filled out, the business needs to fill out a Lighting Incentive Application (page 3) and submit it to Columbia Water & Light.

If you are applying for a commercial loan, please contact us for an application by sending an e-mail to WLMAIL@gocolumbiamo.com or call 573-874-7325 and submit it to the utility.

A Columbia Water & Light staff member will visit the business to check on the details of the lighting upgrade project. The staff member will notify the business if the project is approved for a rebate and the loan.

A business must receive pre-authorization for a lighting upgrade before proceeding with the installation of new fixtures to be eligible for the Lighting Incentive.

Once the lighting upgrade is completed, contact Columbia Water & Light for a final inspection. Copies of the paid invoices and receipts for the lighting upgrade expenses must be provided at the final inspection appointment.

After Columbia Water & Light has inspected the business’ new lighting system and verified the invoice the rebate will be processed.

The rebate check will be mailed to the name and address as filled out in the application.

If you have applied for a loan, you will be contacted to set an appointment to sign the paperwork and receive the check.